GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After a large contingent of athletes combined for 13 event wins at last Saturday's Big Red Machine Open, the Colorado Mesa University indoor track and field squad will split and send smaller contingents to a pair of weekend meets in Golden, Colorado and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A group of 25 mostly field event athletes will head to Golden for the Mines Winter Classic while a group of 15 sprinters, hurdlers and 800-meter runners will make a longer trip to the New Mexico Team Open, looking to take advantage of the banked track in the downtown Albuquerque Convention Center to run fast times.

Complete details as well as CMU's list of entries for both meets can be found in this preview.

Results and recaps of the Mavs' efforts from both meets will be posted on Friday and Saturday evenings at www.cmumavericks.com.

Mines Winter Classic Meet Details/Coverage

The Mines Winter Classic will be held in the Orediggers' Steinhauer Fieldhouse and is slated to begin at 1 p.m. on Friday with the first four events of the men's heptathlon.  The long jump, pole vault and shot put disciplines will also be contested throughout the afternoon evening.

Action will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday with the weight throw.  The triple and high jump events will also be contested that afternoon as will the final three events of the heptathlon and the women's pentathlon.

The slate of running events is slim, although the Mavericks have some entries in the 60-meter dash and hurdle events, which will be run in a preliminary and finals format on Saturday afternoon, starting at 3:30 p.m.

The distance medley relay and 5,000-meter distance running events will be run on Friday night, although the Mavs are not sending any athletes for those.

A complete meet schedule and a link to the live results can be found above.

The meet will also be streamed on the RMAC Network (subscription required; more information below) with a series of separate streams for each event, all accessible here.

New Mexico Team Open Details/Coverage

The New Mexico Team Open will also be contested on Friday and Saturday.

Meet information, including the tentative schedule and full list of entries can be found here.

Action will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday and at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday.

All but one of CMU's entries are in track events.

It is worth noting that the invitational sections of some disciplines will be ran at different times from the unseeded sections.  Those invitational sections will include the higher seeded athletes, including some of the Mavs (noted below).

The meet will be streamed on FloTrack, which also requires a subscription.

Live results can be accessed here.

Mines Winter Classic Entries

The Mavericks are bringing 25 athletes (12 men, 13 women), all but two of whom will compete in field events.  A few of the Maverick jumpers are also entered in the 60-meter dash and hurdling events.

Freshman Asa Keim will make his multi-event debut, contesting the heptathlon as the Mavericks will be represented in 15 different disciplines in total.

Men (12 Athletes, 22 Entries)
60m (4): Weston Domich, Solomon Griffen, Hayden Moreno, Roman Sackman
60m Hurdles (3): Griffen, AJ Iarusso, Trevor Kendall
Long Jump (3): Domich, Moreno, Sackman
Triple Jump (1): Domich
Shot Put (5): Van Chambers, Dillon Davis, Kaiden Major, Austin Schultz, Cain Trimble
Weight Throw (5): Chambers, Davis, Major, Schultz, Trimble
Heptathlon (1): Asa Keim

Women (13 Athletes, 24 Entries)
60m (3): Taiya Carl, Waycee Harvey, Emily Hruby
60m Hurdles (1): Jessie Schaffer
High Jump (3): Misha Edwards, Kaelea Gibson, Addison Hayes
Pole Vault (1): Carl
Long Jump (6): Hayes, Harvey, Hruby, Addy Kirkpatrick, Kendra Ritzmann, Natalie Smythe
Triple Jump (4): Harvey, Hayes, Ritzmann, Smythe
Shot Put (3): Aaliyah Bos, Brilee Jensen, Elly Thiem
Weight Throw (3): Bos, Jensen, Thiem

New Mexico Team Open Entries

The Mavericks have entered nine men, eight of whom are slated to do two individual running events, plus a 4x400-meter relay team.

Six Maverick women are entered in five total disciplines, including multi-event standout Kaitlyn Pearson, who is entered in both the 200 meters and the 60-meter hurdles as well as the long jump, the only field event that the Mavs will contest in New Mexico.

The Mav women will also run the 4x400-meter relay.

Men (9 Athletes, 18 Entries)
60m (4): Teo Casados*, Marick Cummings, Amaris Mora, Joseph Randolph*
200m (6): Casados*, Cummings, Jordan Fraser, Mora, Randolph*, Antonio Wadsworth
400m (5): Justin Blanton*, Aidan Brownell, Fraser, Logan Hafey, Wadsworth
60m Hurdles (2): Brownell, Hafey
4x400m Relay: 1 Team

*-Accepted into the Invitational Section of the events

Women (6 Athletes, 11 Entries)
60m (1): Hannah Schissler
200m (3): Cami Costello, Kaitlyn Pearson, Schissler
400m (2): Costello, Kammi Merritt
800m (2): Brooke Miller, Jordan Staniszewski
60m Hurdles (1): Pearson
4x400m Relay: 1 Team
Long Jump (1): Pearson

Last Time Out

The Mavericks had a large contingent compete at last Saturday's Big Red Machine Open in Western Colorado University's Mountaineer Fieldhouse.  The Mavericks combined to win 13 events while the men's portion of the squad also set six new marks on the program's all-time top ten charts.

The Maverick men shined in the field events, winning five of out of six, while also adding a pair of track victories in the 60-meter hurdles, an event the Mavs swept the top four places in, plus the 4x400-meter relay.

Meanwhile, the CMU women claimed five victories on the track and another in the field from Kendra Ritzmann in the triple jump.

A full meet recap can be seen here.

Top 10's

As mentioned, the Maverick men combined for six new marks on the program's all-time top-10 charts.  The complete list can be seen here.

Thrower Van Chambers set two of those marks, recording career bests in both the weight throw and the shot put.

His weight throw mark moved him to second on the Mavs' all-time charts.

Here's a breakdown of the new marks set on Saturday.

Weight Throw- 2. Van Chambers (17.73m/58-2); 8. Kaiden Major (16.56m/54-3.75)
Pole Vault- 3. Asa Keim (4.66m/15-3.25)
High Jump- 9. Benson White (1.97m/6-5.5)
Shot Put- 9. Van Chambers (14.21m/46-7.25)
Triple Jump- 10. Jalen Hale (14.13m/46-4.25)

Soaring and diving

Freshman Asa Keim represented the Maverick track & field squad for the first time on Saturday, claiming the pole vault victory.  His winning mark of 4.66 meters (15-3.25) moved him to the No. 3 spot in program history and was CMU's best indoor pole vault effort in seven years since Nolan Ellis won the 2019 NCAA Division II Natational Championship.

Keim, a native of Grain Valley, Missouri, is also a member of the Maverick diving team and surpassed the NCAA Division II Pre-Championship qualification standards during the TYR/CMU Invitational in November.

Two-For-Two

Sophomore jumper Kendra Ritzmann has won the triple jump at both of the Mavericks' meets so far this season and also eclipsed the NCAA Division II Championship qualifying standard of 11.74 (38-6.25) meters in both.  She set her career-best mark of 11.86 meters (38-11) at the Mountaineer Open & Multi in December and then won the event at Saturday's Big Red Machine Open with an effort of 11.85 meters, just one centimeter off her season-opener.

Championship Qualifying Procedures

The Mavericks will be gunning for championship qualifying marks throughout the season, including at this weekend's meet.  To qualify for the RMAC Championships, athletes must be amongst the top 18 declared athletes in their respective events on the conference's season-long performance lists, which will also factor in altitude and track-size conversions, which try to level out the various conditions and locations that RMAC athletes compete in.

The RMAC Championships will be held on Feb. 27-28 in Gunnison.

The national championship selections will be made on a similar basis with the top 18 declared athletes in each of the individual event qualifying.  The top 16 combined event performers (heptathlon/pentathlon) will also receive an invite to the Mar. 13-15 NCAA Division II National Championships in Indianapolis.  The top 12 relay teams will also be selected.

This procedure is identical to 2024-25, but a slight tweak from previous seasons when the number of qualifiers in each event varied slightly when the national committee used a "desired field size" mandate, rather than a hard cutoff.

National List Representatives

Two Mavericks— Teo Casados and Kendra Ritzmann— set NCAA Championship provisional qualifying marks at the season-opening meet.

Casados currently stands in a tie for 13th on the national list with his altitude-converted time of 6.74 seconds in the 60 meters.

Ritzmann ranks 21^st in the women's triple jump with her mark of 11.86 meters (38-11).

RMAC Leaders
Twelve different Maverick individuals plus the men' 4x400-meter relay rank amongst the RMAC's top five in their respective events heading into the weekend.

Four of those efforts came at last week's meet.

Here is a look at the Mavs represented amongst the top five in their respective events.

Men
60m- 1. Teo Casados (6.74*)
60m Hurdles- 4. Aidan Brownell (8.38*); 5. Trevor Kendall (8.39*)
4x400m Relay- 5. Justin Blanton, Brownell, Logan Hafey, Antonio Wadsworth (3:22.80*)
High Jump- 5. Benson White (1.97/6-5.5)
Pole Vault- 3. Asa Keim (4.66m/15-3.5)
Weight Throw- 5. Van Chambers (17.73m/58-2)

Women
200m- 4. Hannah Schissler (25.03*)
400m- 3. Kammi Merritt (57.41*)
60m Hurdles- 5. Kaitlyn Pearson (8.90*)
High Jump- 4. Kaelea Gibson (1.62m/5-3.75)
Triple Jump- 2. Kendra Ritzmann (11.86m/38-11)
Weight Throw- 4. Augustine Hancock (16.91m/55-5.75)

*-Altitude/Track-Size Converted time

In the Polls

Both Maverick squads were picked fifth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Polls, which were announced by conference officials last month.

The Maverick women received four third place votes and picked up 142 total points in the 15-team poll.  CMU's men received three third place votes and scored 100 points in the 13-team poll.

In conjunction with the polls, the RMAC also announced the preseason all-conference team, made up of one returning athlete in each individual event and based on last year's NCAA and RMAC Championship results.

Redshirt senior Jordan Burnett was the Mavs' lone selection after claiming the 400-meter title at last year's RMAC Indoor Championships.

A full summary of the polls can be seen here. - https://cmumavericks.com/news/2025/12/4/womens-track-field-mav-track-field-squads-picked-fifth-in-rmac-indoor-polls.aspx

A look back

The Maverick women took third at last year's RMAC Indoor Championships, scoring 87 points in what was Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Travis Floeck's first year with the program.  The Mav women have now finished third in three straight years and have placed second or third in each of the last five and amongst the top four in six straight campaigns.

The Maverick men finished sixth at the RMAC Championships with 41 points.

The Mavs also had a pair of RMAC event champions and two NCAA Championship qualifiers.

Jordan Burnett (women's 400 meters) and Salem Brunk (men's triple jump) both return in 2025-26 after winning RMAC titles.

National qualifiers Gaby Horton (women's 200) and Antone Higgs (men's long jump) also return.

All-Conference returners
The Mavericks had 17 different athletes earn 20 total All-RMAC honors at the 2025 RMAC Championships.

All four of the Maverick men who garnered five total plaudits return.

Eight of the 13 Maverick women who combined for 15 total all-conference honors a year ago are back in 2025-26.

Here's a full list of the returning all-conference honorees.

Women (8 Athletes, 9 Honors)
Gaby Horton (60m-1^st Team; 200m-1^st Team)
Jordan Burnett (400m-1^st Team)
Brooke Miller (800m-2^nd Team)
Athahlia Mills (60m Hurdles-2^nd Team)
Kaitlyn Pearson (Pentathlon-2^nd Team)
Kaelea Gibson (High Jump-2^nd Team)
Addy Kirkpatrick (Long Jump-2^nd Team)
Augustine Hancock (Weight Throw-1^st Team)

Men (4 Athletes, 5 Honors)
Marik Cummings (60m- 2^nd Team)
Aidan Brownell (60m Hurdles- 2^nd Team)
Antone Higgs (Long Jump-1^st Team; Triple Jump-2^nd Team)
Salem Brunk (Triple Jump-2^nd Team)
First Team All-RMAC honors are given to the top three finishers in each individual event plus members of the winning relay teams at the conference championships.  Second team accolades are given to the fourth through sixth place finishers in individual events and to the members of second place relay teams.

RMAC Network News
 
The Mines Winter Classic will be streamed live on the RMAC Network, which has moved to a pay-per-view model for the 2025-26 season.  This season, all RMAC athletic events broadcast by its 15 full-member institutions and associate members will only be available for purchase via a single-game pass or a monthly or annual subscription. Revenue generated by the network will be redistributed to the league's membership to enhance their programs.
 
RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them with access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription costs $130. Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants access to a single game for 24 hours.
 
Additionally, a discounted annual subscription price will be available to students, faculty, and staff of each member institution throughout the year. Purchasing options and pricing for individual RMAC Championships will be announced closer to each event.
 
Colorado Mesa turns 100
 
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.

Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
 
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit cmucentury.com.
 
Up Next

The Mavs will continue their season and come together to compete at next week's Colorado Invitational in Boulder, Colorado.